The Wisps

Will-o'-the-wisps. Unionized, collectively.

The Wisps are a unionized collective of will-o’-the-wisps working as a performing troupe, and they are the most beautiful thing we have ever pointed a camera at. They are also contractually entitled to wander off their marks at will, which means every night shoot has floating exposure, roaming actors, and at least one lighting grievance filed before wrap. We plan for all three now, happily.

They unionized mid-shoot in 2025. The negotiation was brief, because the union was correct and we told them so. Yuki Tanaka keeps a grievance form taped inside the lighting cart so that filing one never costs anybody a take.

Drift was finished the week our gaffer stopped chasing them and let the marks come to the light. It turned out to be the whole point of the film, which the Wisps had mentioned in the first production meeting. We should listen sooner.